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https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi

instant coding answers via the command line
https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi

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instant coding answers via the command line

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README 

        


    

        Sherlock, your neighborhood command-line sloth sleuth

    



howdoi


Instant coding answers via the command line


⚡ Never open your browser to look for help again ⚡





    build status

    downloads

    Python versions




------------------------------------------------------------------------



## Introduction to howdoi



Are you a hack programmer? Do you find yourself constantly Googling for

how to do basic programming tasks?



Suppose you want to know how to format a date in bash. Why open your

browser and read through blogs (risking major distraction) when you can

simply stay in the console and ask howdoi:



    $ howdoi format date bash

    > DATE=`date +%Y-%m-%d`



howdoi will answer all sorts of queries:



    $ howdoi print stack trace python

    > import traceback

    >

    > try:

    >     1/0

    > except:

    >     print '>>> traceback <<<'

    >     traceback.print_exc()

    >     print '>>> end of traceback <<<'

    > traceback.print_exc()



    $ howdoi convert mp4 to animated gif

    > video=/path/to/video.avi

    > outdir=/path/to/output.gif

    > mplayer "$video" \

    >         -ao null \

    >         -ss "00:01:00" \  # starting point

    >         -endpos 10 \ # duration in second

    >         -vo gif89a:fps=13:output=$outdir \

    >         -vf scale=240:180



    $ howdoi create tar archive

    > tar -cf backup.tar --exclude "www/subf3" www



[![image](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/tar.png)](https://xkcd.com/1168/)



## Installation



    pip install howdoi



or



    brew install howdoi



## Usage



### New to howdoi?



    howdoi howdoi



### RTFM



-   [Introduction and

    installation](http://gleitz.github.io/howdoi/introduction/)

-   [Usage](http://gleitz.github.io/howdoi/usage/)

-   [Contributing to

    howdoi](http://gleitz.github.io/howdoi/contributing_to_howdoi/)

-   [Advanced

    usage](http://gleitz.github.io/howdoi/howdoi_advanced_usage/)

-   [Troubleshooting](http://gleitz.github.io/howdoi/troubleshooting/)



### Commands



    usage: howdoi [-h] [-p POS] [-n NUM] [-a] [-l] [-c] [-x] [-C] [-j] [-v] [-e [ENGINE]]

    [--save] [--view] [--remove] [--empty] [QUERY ...]



    instant coding answers via the command line



    positional arguments:

      QUERY                 the question to answer



    optional arguments:

      -h, --help            show this help message and exit

      -p POS, --pos POS     select answer in specified position (default: 1)

      -n NUM, --num NUM     number of answers to return (default: 1)

      -a, --all             display the full text of the answer

      -l, --link            display only the answer link

      -c, --color           enable colorized output

      -x, --explain         explain how answer was chosen

      -C, --clear-cache     clear the cache

      -j, --json            return answers in raw json format

      -v, --version         display the current version of howdoi

      -e [ENGINE], --engine [ENGINE]

                            search engine for this query (google, bing, duckduckgo)

      --save, --stash       stash a howdoi answer

      --view                view your stash

      --remove              remove an entry in your stash

      --empty               empty your stash



    environment variable examples:

      HOWDOI_COLORIZE=1

      HOWDOI_DISABLE_CACHE=1

      HOWDOI_DISABLE_SSL=1

      HOWDOI_SEARCH_ENGINE=google

      HOWDOI_URL=serverfault.com



Using the howdoi stashing feature (for more advanced features view the

[keep documentation](https://github.com/OrkoHunter/keep)).



    stashing: howdoi --save QUERY

    viewing:  howdoi --view

    removing: howdoi --remove (will be prompted which answer to delete)

    emptying: howdoi --empty (empties entire stash, will be prompted to confirm)



As a shortcut, if you commonly use the same parameters each time and

don\'t want to type them, add something similar to your .bash_profile

(or otherwise). This example gives you 5 colored results each time.



    alias h='function hdi(){ howdoi $* -c -n 5; }; hdi'



And then to run it from the command line simply type:



    $ h format date bash



You can also search other [StackExchange

properties](https://stackexchange.com/sites#traffic) for answers:



    HOWDOI_URL=cooking.stackexchange.com howdoi make pesto



or as an alias:



    alias hcook='function hcook(){ HOWDOI_URL=cooking.stackexchange.com howdoi $* ; }; hcook'

    hcook make pesto



Other useful aliases:



    alias hless='function hdi(){ howdoi $* -c | less --raw-control-chars --quit-if-one-screen --no-init; }; hdi'



## Integrations



-   Slack integration available through

    [slack-howdoi](https://github.com/ellisonleao/slack-howdoi)

-   Telegram integration available through

    [howdoi-telegram](https://github.com/aahnik/howdoi-telegram)

-   Discord integration available through

    [discord-howdoi](https://github.com/MLH-Fellowship/0.5.1-howDoIDiscord)

-   Emacs integration available through

    [emacs-howdoi](https://blog.gleitzman.com/post/700738401851277312/howdoi-use-howdoi-in-emacs)

-   VSCode integration available on the

    [marketplace](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=howdoi-org.howdoi)

-   Alfred integration available through

    [alfred-howdoi](https://github.com/gleitz/alfred-howdoi)



## Contributors



-   Benjamin Gleitzman ([\@gleitz](http://twitter.com/gleitz))

-   Yanlam Ko ([\@YKo20010](https://github.com/YKo20010))

-   Diana Arreola ([\@diarreola](https://github.com/diarreola))

-   Eyitayo Ogunbiyi ([\@tayoogunbiyi](https://github.com/tayoogunbiyi))

-   Chris Nguyen ([\@chrisngyn](https://github.com/chrisngyn))

-   Shageldi Ovezov ([\@ovezovs](https://github.com/chrisngyn))

-   Mwiza Simbeye

    ([\@mwizasimbeye11](https://github.com/mwizasimbeye11))

-   Shantanu Verma ([\@SaurusXI](https://github.com/SaurusXI))

-   Sheza Munir ([\@ShezaMunir](https://github.com/ShezaMunir))

-   Jyoti Bisht ([\@joeyouss](https://github.com/joeyouss))

-   And [more!](https://github.com/gleitz/howdoi/graphs/contributors)



## How to contribute



We welcome contributions that make howdoi better and improve the

existing functionalities of the project. We have created a separate

[guide to contributing to

howdoi](http://gleitz.github.io/howdoi/contributing_to_howdoi/) that explains

how to get up and running with your first pull request.



## Notes



-   Works with Python 3.7 and newer. Unfortunately Python 2.7 support

    has been discontinued :(

-   Special thanks to Rich Jones

    ([\@miserlou](https://github.com/miserlou)) for the idea

-   More thanks to [Ben Bronstein](https://benbronstein.com/) for the

    logo